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Waferscale Integration

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STMicroelectronics acquires Waferscale Integration, Inc.
After many years of cooperating as their design and manufacturing partner, STMicroelectronics is acquiring provider of programmable system devices (PSDs), Waferscale Integration Inc. (Fremont, California). WSI was a privately held corporation funded by corporate, institutional, private and venture capital investors. Prior to the acquisition, ST held a 14.5% minority interest in the company and will invest $68 million to acquire full ownership.
With the acquisition of WSI, ST will obtain the product portfolio, intellectual property and technologies developed by the company in the field of non-volatile memories and memory systems. The acquisition will also reinforce ST's presence in Israel, where ST has a joint Design Center with Altec-Lansing, and in Silicon Valley, where ST already has an advanced Design Center, a joint Design Center with Hitachi and close links with the University of California at Berkeley.

WSI is known for PSD products that combine memory functions such as Flash, EEPROM and SRAM with programmable logic on a chip that is designed to work with a standard microcontroller. PSDs can be programmed without special manufacturing equipment, even in the field, making them particularly attractive in applications such as medical equipment, automotive control systems, industrial process control systems, applications where large amounts of parameter updates are required, and low to medium volume applications.

"We have been delighted by the acceptance to date of our innovative Flash products. Now that it is supported by ST's manufacturing machine and global resources in product support and development, the PSD concept will proliferate across the ST customer base and will meet the needs of new high volume customers, while providing enhanced service to our current customer base," said Mike Callahan, President and CEO of WSI.

WSI's operations will continue to be headquartered in the Silicon Valley area but will now function as an operational Business Unit within STMicroelectronics' Memory Products Group.

STMicroelectronics designs, develops, manufactures and markets semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs) and discrete devices used in a wide variety of microelectronic applications, including telecommunications systems, computer systems, consumer products, automotive products and industrial automation and control systems.

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